The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1887-12-02
ABOUT ELEPHANTS.
heir Wonderful Sagacity, Courage
and Strength.

When full-grown elephant, srung
to frenzy by three or four wounds,
turns at bay on you, look out! He is
more to be feared than any other beast
on earth, and the hunter who ESCAPES
him must depend upon luck or acct
dent.
There was period of three years
when l was regularly employed by an
English house at Zanzibar to hunt for
ivory, and / was fitted out in the most
liberal manner, and permitted to 90 in
any direction inland. The main object
was to secure tusks, and sent enough
OF them to Zanzibar to seemingly SUP
ply the markets of the world for fifty
years. Something is written every
day OF the tame elephants bio,
Sood-natured beasts of the circus and
the geological gardens-bu very little
is written of the wild ones. l had
opportunity to study them under all
sorts OF circumstances, and have never
been satisfied with the accounts given
by hunters and naturalists. In nv
opinion the elephant in his native
pastures is the keenest, shrewdest and
most intelligent of all animals. He
has more courage than the lion, more
terocity than the tiger, and more cum
ming than the fox, Only man is a
match for him, and it must be pretty
intelligent man, too.
One afternoon, while I was cleaning.
my guns, one of the natives, who had
been out to look for stray OK, came
running into camp with the informa-
ton that q SOLITARY" bull elephant
was in a grove about a mile and a half
away. These solitaries are ugly old
fellows, who have been driven awav
from the herds for o time, and are very
dangerous to encounter, l got gun
ready, stuffed few cartridges into nv
pocket, and set off on Il run, in COM
pany with my man. 1t was a dull,
heavy atmosphere, with no breeze
blowing, and it is the rule in this case
TO approach game from the west. To
get to this fellow had to make lone
circuit, but it was made with such care
that an antelope would not have taken
the alarm. / saw him at intervals
but when reached the spot desired he
had disappeared from the grove. His
spoor showed that he had moved
hastily, as if suspicious, and after fol-
lowing it for mile gave up the
chase and started for camp. Our route
took us near the grove, and what was
my establishment to see that same ele-
plant standing in his old tracks. This
time l got Il shot at him, but he went
off at such a pace as to discourage me
from following. Why did he leave the
grove the fist time? He had neither
seen nor scented us. There was moth
ing to tell him shat danger approached.
He was, however, obeying what |
afterward discovered was elephant in
stinct These great beasts always act
on the theory that they are pursued.
If they rest for time in one spot, they
start up in alarm and go off with a
rush when they go, and it is rarely
they rest again until they have travelled
twelve or fifteen miles. This fellow
had been resting two or three hours,
and he started up, went off at a trot
for three miles, doubled back like a
fox, and was contentedly feeding when
saw him the second time.
l have often wondered that no
hunter or native ever found an elephant
who had died by accident or old age.
| suppose the explanation is, that
when an elephant dies in the forest,
the wild beasts speedily deYour his car